Formicidae
by PowerPen
Summary: A teenager is caught in the middle of a battle between the Yeerks and the Animorphs, and has his life ruined because of it. This is the first fanfic that I've written in years  literally . The idea just grabbed hold last night and WOULD NOT let go. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Nat.

I can't tell you my last name. Why? Well, it's not because I'm fighting a secret war against mind controlling aliens who would grasp at any little piece of information that might allow them to hunt me down and capture me.

Really, that is _not_ the reason. What you just did there, friend, is called jumping to a conclusion.

I almost wish that I was being hunted by mind controlling aliens, though, because the real reason I can't tell you my last name is way more mundane and tragic.

See, I can't tell you my last name because I don't remember what it is.


	2. Chapter 2

The large clock on the wall insisted that I had only been at work for twenty-five minutes, but it felt like it had been hours already. I stifled a yawn and leaned backwards in my chair.

If one was inclined to trust the clock, and I'm not sure I was, then I was only a fraction of the way through what had to be the most pointless day of work ever. I mean, who goes outside during a freaking tropical storm, let alone to a pet shop?

Employees of said pet shop, that's who. "I don't care if it was _Hurricane_ David," my boss snapped. "If a little girl wants to buy a puppy, then you two _will_ be there to sell it to her!"

I almost told him where he could stick his puppies, but the unfortunate mental image as well as the thought of losing my job stopped me. I thought that I needed this job. I was saving up for a new video game system, a car that didn't break down every other week, and a million other stupid things.

You may have noticed that my boss said 'you two'. He was referring to me and my other half, Bernice. When I say other half, I mean fellow pet shop slave, not – you know. The extent of our bond at this point was that we both had to deal with a boss who seemed to have come straight out of a bad sitcom.

I never knew why she didn't tell him to shove it. I didn't bother to ask.

So that is how we both came to be inside of the pet shop on Saturday, trying to withstand the wrath of Mother Nature. _Tropical Storm _David unrelentingly hurled rain at the roof of our little shelter, and shook the walls with sixty miles plus winds. The lights flickered annoyingly, threatening to go off at any moment.

Even though we (obviously) didn't have any customers, the shop was anything but quiet. Did you know that animals, really, really don't like storms? Especially dogs?

"Nat, are you going to help me or what?" Bernice demanded from the floor. In one hand she was holding a squirming cat, and in the other a few days old Labrador puppy that looked like he was going to pee all over the floor from fright.

"Help you do what, exactly?" I asked.

"Calm down the animals – hey!" Bernice said, as the Labrador squirmed out her grasp. He scampered across the floor and made a beeline for a dish that was catching water from a leak in the ceiling.

With an exaggerated sigh, I leapt to my feet and strode across the room.

"That water is not good for you, pal," I said, scooping the puppy into my arms, "and I'm cutting you off. It may taste good now but you'd regret it in the morning."

The puppy whined and nestled his head disappointedly into the crook of my arm. I patted him consolingly and walked him back towards his cage. The ten or so other dogs stopped yowling in their cages for a brief moment and gazed at me quizzically.

"That's perfect, guys," I told them, and placed the Labrador back into his cage. "If we can just stay this quiet, or at least use our inside voices-"

I was interrupted by a crash of thunder, and the dogs resumed their manic barking. I threw my hands into the air.

"Bernice, this is pointless," I declared. "We can't walk them and we can't let them run around in here, so they're all just going to keep making their respective barking noises."

"I know," Bernice sighed. She straightened herself up, and sat back on her heels. "It's just that if these animals don't shut up, I'm going to go crazy."

"Barking mad?" I suggested. She rolled her eyes at me, then lifted the fussing cat into air and stood up. She walked over to the cat's cage and bent down to open it. As she bent over, I couldn't help but notice how nicely the regulation pet shop khakis complimented the curve of her rear end.

_Eight hours alone with nothing to do? Maybe it's time to get to know Bernice better_,a small but extremely persuasive part of my brain whispered.

But no, I reasoned, that was just a knee-jerk hormonal male teenager reaction. Realizing that I was staring, I forced my gaze to wander around the room.

That was probably the wisest choice that I have ever made. I'd hate to die knowing that it was because I couldn't stop staring at some girl's butt.

Maybe it was luck, or maybe I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but at that moment I decided to look out of the window. Through the rain-drenched panes, I saw the silhouette of a person. That silhouette was holding a dull metal object, pointing straight at me.

The shape of the object wasn't exactly right, but that didn't matter to whatever part of my brain responded first. I grew up in the not-so-good-bordering-on-terrible part of town, and the first thought that went through my head was: _Gun_.

I dropped to the floor milliseconds before the window panes exploded inwards.

* * *

Glass shards and splinters flew inwards. Most of the splinters disintegrated in midair, and the glass shards melted and fused together from the intense heat before crashing to the ground. Oh, and the chair I was sitting in was hit by a laser beam.

_A laser beam_.

An inch-wide hole appeared where my chest would have been. The hole was cleanly burned straight through. Except for the singed fabric on the edges, the hole was a perfect semi-circle.

There was a pause of complete silence. For a second, even the pounding rain seemed to hesitate.

Then the moment ended, and the dogs started barking and the cats started yowling and the rodents were squealing at an impossible frequency and even the snakes were making some sort of freaky snake noise. Bernice screamed at the top of her lungs.

Something inside of me had kicked into gear, and my thoughts began moving at a thousand miles per hour.

_Someone just shot a laser beam at me_. Fact. I accepted this and moved on.

_I do not know someone with a laser gun._ I was almost certain of this. That meant that the person was not shooting at me specifically, they were, for some reason, shooting at anyone inside of the store.

_Bernice was about to be shot_.

I lunged forward from my awkward position on the floor towards her, and managed to wrap my hand around her ankle. With a sharp yank, I pulled her leg out from underneath her, and she crashed onto the ground next to me. The side of her head slammed into the corner of a fish tank, and a nasty gash was sliced into it.

"What are you-" she screamed at me, an instant before another laser beam flew directly overhead. A shorthair cat yowled and took the laser along its spine. It hissed and spat, somehow injured and pissed off rather than dead.

"Behind the counter!" I yelled, and without waiting for a response hauled her backwards. She flailed, struggling, not fully comprehending that we were being shot at yet.

I did not have time for this. I grabbed her under the armpits and scooted us both towards the counter with my feet. As we slid backwards, I chanced a glance towards the window. The man was aiming his laser gun again, a look of cold detachment on his face.

I gave a final shove, and Bernice and I were completely behind the counter. The man fired again, but the counter did not yield. Bernice was trying to yell something at me, but I don't think she realized that she was speaking in gibberish.

"Bernice, shut up!" I yelled, shaking her as hard as I could. Her glasses had come off when I knocked her to the floor, and a steady stream of blood was sliding down the side of her face. The expression on her face was pure terror.

"I can't see – what's going on? What's happening?" she said, her voice on the verge of hysterics. Another laser beam flew overhead, and a fish tank behind us exploded. Hot water and charbroiled goldfish corpses rained down on top of us.

I clamped a hand over Bernice's mouth, and felt her scream into my palm. I didn't really know why I was stopping her from screaming, because the laser gun guy obviously knew where they were. But if she kept screaming, then I might start screaming too. And then laser gun guy would come back here and shoot us and we'd be dead.

"Bernice, I need you to do something for me," I whispered, and found that my voice was cracking. "Okay? Okay, right, listen. I don't need you to listen to me, or trust me, or anything like that. I just need you to shut the _fuck_ up so I can think, okay?"

The vulgarity seemed to penetrate through her hysteria. She nodded quickly, and her screaming devolved into panicked breathing.

"Police! Cellphone!" I exclaimed, yanking it out of my pocket. An instant later it went sailing across the room, after the display kindly informed me that I had zero bars. A laser beam intercepted it in midair and it exploded.

Bernice held out her cellphone, but she had no service either. I slammed it to the floor in frustration.

"How are the police supposed to help anyway?" Bernice demanded shrilly. "They'd never get here before we get killed!"

"Aren't you supposed to be shutting up?" I snapped, and yanked the store's phone off of the counter and onto the floor. I jammed the receiver to my ear, and thanked God as the sweet sound of a dial tone hit my ear.

I punched 9-1-1, and the other side picked up immediately. "What's your emerg-"

"We're being shot at by a guy with a laser!" I yelled, and immediately regretted it.

"Are you now? A laser?" the tone on the other side of the phone sounded skeptical.

"Okay, okay, I know that sounds crazy or like a prank," I said desperately, "but you have to believe me. We're at the pet shop on 7th!"

Maybe it was the terrified sound of my voice that did it. "Okay, I'll send someone to check it out. This better not be a-"

There was another blast of laser, and the phone line went dead. I dropped the receiver and ducked lower next to Bernice. It was only a matter of time before laser gun guy decided to come inside and put an end to this.

He did, in fact, come inside a second later, but not in the way I was expecting. He came in flying through the air, tumbling heels over head, and slammed into the wall right next to the desk. He groaned once, then collapsed into a heap on the ground. The laser gun dropped from his limp right hand, as did a shiny blue box from his left.


	3. Chapter 3

(Jake, I got the chump with the cube.) A voice said in my head. (But I'm pretty much surrounded, and there's also two people from the pet shop cowering inside.)

(Get the cube first, worry about them later.) A second voice instructed. (Are they controllers?)

(I doubt it. They look like they're about to piss their pants.) The first voice said. (And if they were controllers, I don't think their yeerk buddy would be shooting at them.)

(They'd probably take offense to a grizzly bear coming into their shop uninvited, too.) A third voice cracked. I peered cautiously above the desk, and there _was_ a grizzly bear climbing through the shattered window.

I decided that I had gone insane and slumped dejectedly behind the counter. The grizzly bear lumbered across to the store and grabbed the blue cube in its mouth. Meanwhile, all of the animals in the store decided that his would be a very good time to be quiet.

(Got it! I might be able to power my way out of here with some backup, but these two are as good as dead.)

"Grizzly bear? Is there a grizzly bear in here?" Bernice whispered. She could hear the voices too – maybe I wasn't crazy. Or maybe we were both exactly the same kind of crazy.

I peered above the desk again. Outside of the window, red flashes of light lit up the gray landscape. Shapes several yards away from the window looked like they were engaged in a terrible battle.

A gorilla crashed through the front door, followed closely by a wolf. One of the gorilla's eyes was bleeding profusely, and the wolf was limping. The knuckles of the gorilla and the sharp, yellow teeth of the wolf were bloody. I was beyond surprise at this point. I didn't think I was capable of being shocked anymore.

The gorilla grabbed the counter and, with a grunt and visible effort, tore it from its bolted position on the floor. I pushed Bernice up against the wall, and felt her shaking under my arm. It must have been terrifying, not seeing what was going on. Somehow, though, I thought that I had it worse: I _did_ have to see what was going on.

A terrible, 7 foot tall bladed creature scrambled through the doorway. The wolf snarled and leapt at it, throwing it off balance. The creature swiped at the wolf and left a deep red gash across its back with a blade.

The grizzly roared in fury and stood up, towering above even the yellow monster. The grizzly swung a massive paw and slammed it into the long neck of the creature. With a snapping sound, the neck bent at an angle I could tell was unnatural even for this abomination, and it crumpled to the floor.

Another bladed creature tried to force its way through the doorway, but the gorilla swung the counter like a battering ram and sent it tumbling out into the rain like an 8-ball hit by a cue stick. The grizzly slammed the door shut, and the gorilla slammed the counter down in front of it.

(Guys, I can't take much more of this.)

(Neither can my gorilla. We've got to bail.)

(You two grow some wings, and I'll hold off the yeerks.)

The gorilla shook its head. (Nice try, Xena. Your eagle is the only morph we've got that can carry the cube, especially in this weather. We're not leaving you anyway.)

(And what about those two?)

The wolf, gorilla, and grizzly bear all turned to look at Bernice and me cowering in the corner.

(Leave them.)

I was perfectly okay with this idea, but one of them protested.

(Marco! We are _not _leaving them.)

(They are two insignificant little people! Look, I've seen these two around school, and neither is going to do anything special with their life, trust me.)

(MARCO.)

(Cassie, you know what I mean!) the gorilla punched the floor. (We can't jeopardize the mission to save two random people. C'mon, Xena, back me up.)

The grizzly shifted uncomfortably. It might have been a funny sight if our lives weren't currently being discussed by three dangerous and sentient animals that could talk in our heads.

(Look, I'm all for saving lives, but we don't have a way out for these people. Marco's right, the cube is more important.)

(WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?) a voice from earlier bellowed.

(We've got the cube, but Cassie is having a moral breakdown over leaving these store clerks!)

(Dammit, Cassie-) the voice swore, but then shifted to a calmer tone of voice. (Cassie, we can't risk the cube for two people.)

(Sorry to interrupt, Prince Jake, but might I make a suggestion?)

(What, Ax?)

(Cassie, Marco, and Rachel have use of the _Escafil Device_, and they are in a pet shop. Pet shops often have birds, correct?)

(Are you suggesting-)

(Yes, Prince Jake, that is what I am suggesting.)

There was silence. _Tropical Storm_ David raged on, nearly drowning out the sound of the fighting outside. I noticed that both Bernice and I were holding our breaths.

(Moot point.) The gorilla pointed to a cage. Inside were the charred remains of two parrots. (Our boy over there fried the only birds in the shop.)

(Wait.) A new voice chimed in. (They don't need to fly away. We just need to hide them from the yeerks! What better place to hide an Animorph than a pet store?)

(The Purloined Letter? Could work. But who's to say the yeerks aren't going to slaughter every living thing in this place when we escape with the cube done? I wouldn't put it past them, they've done it before. )

(They don't have the time. Once they see the cube is missing, they're going to come straight after us.)

(That's comforting.)

The conversation was interrupted by a yellow fist smashing through the top of the door. The gorilla calmly reached up and grabbed the arm in one of its giant black hands and twisted. The owner of the hand let out a cry and yanked their arm back outside.

(Whatever we do, we better do it fast.)

(Why are we even discussing giving someone the morphing power? We all know what happened last time!)

(There's no time to talk about how jaded we all are.) The wolf stepped forward, and began shifting. (Lives are in danger.)

When I say shifted, I do not mean "made a slight change in position". I mean that the wolf began to change into something else. Gray, bloody clumps of fur were sucked into skin like a kid slurping up spaghetti. Like a reverse werewolf transformation, the form of the wolf began to give way to the shape of a human girl.

Bernice started hiccupping from fright, and I eyed the laser gun. The grizzly bear eyed me.

(Don't even think about it.)

"Please don't freak out," The girl-who-used-to-be-a-wolf said. "I mean, I know this is a freaky situation, so you have my permission to freak out a little bit, but don't overdo it, okay? We don't have a lot of time."

* * *

The girl was short, black, and dressed in only a leotard. It was her hair, short and neat, that gave me a disturbing feeling that I may have seen her somewhere before.

She crossed the room quickly and calmly held out her hand to the grizzly bear. "Rachel, give it."

(Cassie…)

"Now." With a grunt, the grizzly bear dropped the slobber covered blue cube into the girl's hand.

(Guys, you need to be out of there ten minutes ago. Tobias and I are holding the front door, and Ax is guarding the window, but we can't hang on much longer.)

"Hey, ignore all of that." The girl said. "Look at me."

"Cassie? Cassie, from History class?" Bernice asked confusedly. "Is that you?"

"Yes," The girl, Cassie, said. "You have to trust me. We weren't the ones shooting at you, we're here to help."

Her voice was calm and steady, and made me want to trust her. This was somewhat counteracted by the fact that she had just been a wolf a few seconds ago, but she still managed to hold my attention. With all of the things going on around me, that was an accomplishment within itself.

(Cassie, you have no time. I'm serious.)

Cassie sighed. "You two have to trust me, okay? Right now, I need you to touch the blue cube."

(Cassie, we need you as wolf if we're going to have a chance of fighting our way out of here. Now.)

I looked at the cube, hesitating. It was glowing slightly, like radioactive things in cartoons except blue. On the side was strange, foreign writing. I moved my finger towards it slowly. Bernice hesitated, squinted at it, and also reached towards it.

Outside of the window, a bladed creature appeared. There was a flash of silver and blue, and the creature toppled over.

(I believe that I am being overwhelmed.)

The grizzly bear dropped to all fours and plowed outside, taking out the part of the wall that was below the window as it went. (I'm coming Ax!)

(Cassie!)

"For the love of-" Cassie snapped, losing her temper. She took the cube, and quickly hit Bernice and then me on the forehead with it. A jolt of energy went through my head. It wasn't like an electric shock – it felt like the skin on my head had fallen asleep for a second and then woken up.

"What did you do?" Bernice demanded.

"Thorry," Cassie said. She was _shifting_ again, transforming back into a wolf. It was done in seconds. (You need to trust me! Do exactly what I tell you.)

The gorilla and the wolf charged towards the window. The gorilla let out a guttural yell as both animals dove into the nearby battle.

(Okay, find an animal, pick it up, and focus on it.)

"This is insane," Bernice half whispered, half sobbed. I remained crouched against the wall with her, almost too afraid to move.

(You two are still crouched in the corner, aren't you?) I could tell that it was Cassie's voice. (Listen, I don't mean to scare you, but if you don't listen to me then you will die. We're trying to hide you from the yeerks. Basically, the yeerks are the people with dracon bea- um, laser guns and the creatures with blades. When I touched you with the blue cube, I gave you the same power that I have. You can turn into animals.)

(I know you think that it sounds crazy, but it's true. Think about it! If somebody asked you yesterday whether ray guns and bladed monsters and animal-people talking in your head were possible, you would have laughed. Now look! Why _shouldn't_ you be able to turn into animals? All I'm asking you to do is pick up an animal and focus on it. You work in a pet shop, you've picked up animals before. This is simple.)

Bernice moved first. She gently pulled her arm out of my grasp – when we had switched from her clinging to me over to me cling to her I wasn't sure – and crawled forward. Over my noise of weak protest, she reached into a cage and pulled out six-week or seven-week old kitten.

The kitten was slightly scorched, the black mark standing out clearly against its white and brown patched fur, but was otherwise okay.

(You need to pick an animal that's inconspicuous and not very unique. Think cat, or dog, or snakes if you have a lot of them.)

Bernice squinted at me. "Come one, Nat. What's the worst that could happen?"

The fighting was fading away. Maybe the talking animals had made it away? That would mean the earks, or yeerks, or whatevers, would be coming back here.

_Inconspicuous?_

I stood up shakily and made my way over to a shelf near the back. There were a handful of clear plastic containers filled with dirt, most of them cracked and spilled out onto the ground.

Ant farms.

I reached into the mixture of plaster, dirt, and plastic and extracted a struggling black dot.

_What's the worst that could happen?_


	4. Chapter 4

(Focus on the animal that you've selected. What it feels like, what color it is, its name, whatever.) Cassie's voice was growing fainter.

So we did. Bernice and I sat cross legged across from each other, on top of broken glass and splintered wood, a few feet away from the corpse of the bladed alien, and with _Tropical Storm_ David screaming away outside. Somehow, Bernice focused on her kitten and I focused on my ant.

After a while, you just get used to stuff, I guess.

"Hey, Nat." Bernice said conversationally, stroking her kitten.

"Hmm?" I asked, staring intently at the short fuzzy hairs covering my ant. I never knew that ants had hair. They look so smooth unless you examine them closely.

"This is crazy, isn't it?" She asked. She stopped stroking her kitten and looked up at me earnestly. "I mean, like, literally crazy. I'm in a straight-jacket right now, rolling around a rubber room drooling and screaming and resisting sedation."

"I don't know." I said. I really didn't.

(Let go – animal but don't stop - focusing.) Cassie's voice came again, faint and broken. (Whatever - , DO NOT - FOCUSING. It will – weird, but – KEEP FOCUSING. We'll – back for -.)

"I think we're supposed to put our animals down but keep focusing on them." Bernice suggested. I nodded and dropped my ant. Bernice placed her kitten on the ground next to her.

"Jesus Christ!" I yelled. Bernice's face erupted immediately erupted in tiny, fine white hairs. She reached up to scratch her face, looking worried.

"What's happening?" She demanded. I must have looked horrified, because she began to panic. "What's on my face?"

"Hair! I mean, fur!" I babbled. And now she was shrinking, tumbling out her clothes. She was mostly human still, but there was nothing exciting about it. It was gross, freaky, and on the verge of giving me a panic attack.

"I'm turning into a cat!" She exclaimed, sounding terrified and excited. "Nat, you're not focusing!"

I was focusing, but on the pale, flesh colored tail that had just exploded out of her rear end. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, forcing myself to ignore Bernice's transformation. Someone or something was pounding on the door, and whatever it was would probably kill me if they found me. How fast could you change? The other girl, Cassie, had done it in seconds. Bernice was taking longer, but she had a head start.

The image of the ant formed in my mind. Pincers, antennae, fuzzy little hairs-

My waist shrank suddenly, decreasing in diameter until I thought I was going to fall apart from the sheer weight of my chest. _Shrink_!I willed myself, while at the same time trying not to puke. My stomach was so tiny that I doubt that I could have.

The door shivered, and I heard the sounds of someone trying to break it down in a faint, distant kind of way. I realized that my ears had shrunk away, and my eyelids had vanished.

Across from me, Bernice was mostly kitten. Her human feet and hands shriveled away, giving way to tiny paws. The real kitten had long since rocketed out into the storm, unwilling to put up with any of this nonsense. I envied it.

And now, finally, I was shrinking. In seconds, Bernice the kitten was towering over me. She was the size of a house, then the empire state building, and then her head was so high above me I couldn't even see it anymore. Then she disappeared completely as the folds of my shirt encompassed

My skin was hardening, turning even blacker than it already was. And my cheeks – oh god – were giving birth to two horrendous pincers. It was like having a pair of shears broken in half and attached to the side of my face.

My butt extended outwards, forming a hardened ellipsoid. And finally, two limbs exploded out of my chest, slithering out of my chest and touching down next to my other four legs.

It was complete. I was an ant.

As if by some sort of cruel joke, I was allowed to experience a single second of pride. I had just survived a man with a laser gun, a talking wolf, grizzly bear, and gorilla, and now I had turned into an ant and evaded capture by some sort of creepy 'yeerk' organization. I may have been a segmented insect, but I was a proud segmented insect.

And then, a second later, I found out that I was not yet completely an ant.

Because in that moment, the ant brain kicked in.

And in that moment, I was lost.


	5. Chapter 5

_There was no I. There was only we. There was only The Colony._

This was the last thought that I had as even an echo of a human being. I know this because in order to realize that there was no 'I', I needed to at least have an idea of what 'I' was. Ants have no idea of concept of self. Ants are basically soulless machines that run on pheromones.

Right now, the air and ground stink of pheromones. Pheromones from The Colony, pheromones from The Enemy – it is confusing.

Antennae in the air, sorting scents, trying to understand. The Enemy is near. The Colony is destroyed. The Queen is in danger.

Wait! Another from The Colony is near. Our antennae connect, touching, examining. We are similar, no, exactly the same. But that does not matter, all that matters is that we are from The Colony and not The Enemy.

The Queen is in danger. We take off, across valleys of floor cracks, climbing giant white rocks that are actually chunks of plaster with ease. To a human, the damaged pet shop would seem like a horrible mess. To an ant, it was a major disaster area.

We are soldiers, charging across the battlefield toward the distress cry of The Queen from behind enemy lines. We run into nothing but The Enemy. We are warriors, and they are drones. We pull them apart at the joints. A few more yards, and we run into The Enemy again. They are red, and also warriors, and there are more of Them then Us. But The Queen needs us, so we enter the battle.

It is vicious, but The Enemy fails and The Colony succeeds. We continue towards our Queen, fighting off The Enemy drones and the occasional warriors. There are so many more of Them than Us that the ant brain, which usually does not think in terms of numbers, recognizes that there are far more of Them than there are of Us than usual. But we keep going, and keep killing, killing, killing. It is more badass than the most badass war movie ever made, yet we think nothing of it. We think nothing at all. It is our job.

Finally, we reach The Queen. She is distressed. The Colony was destroyed, and now We are weaker than We were. The Enemy is everywhere.

We lead The Queen down a pheromone trail that is marked as safe. We do not know who made it, who cleared a path through The Enemy and made a safe passage for The Queen and The Colony to escape. There is no credit in The Colony.

The Colony marches, one by one, along the pheromone trail. A line of a song passes through the ant brain, along with a desperate sort of laugh, but it does not recognize or acknowledge either.

The Colony is all.

We continue marching past the start of the pheromone trail, over the mounds of fabric that smell like human. We ignore the earthquakes that are actually angry human footsteps, and march towards the scent of outdoors. It is raining hard, and The Colony should be safe underground, not aboveground. Currents swirl through the grass and along the dirt. Trickles of rain are rivers of death to The Colony.

But The Enemy is behind us. So we march forward.

* * *

We establish a new colony after a long march. It is nowhere near our old colony.

We gather food. We make more of Us. The Queen is calm.

Time is nothing.

* * *

We continue on relatively undisturbed. We eat, We grow, We shrink. We survive.

But eventually, we find The Enemy. They are not new. The Enemy that is red that was near our old colony has also created a new colony, and it is not far from where The Colony is.

Of course, this is unacceptable, and The Enemy must be destroyed.

But The Enemy comes to us first. Their drones and warriors swarm our colony, and our tunnels are filled with alarm pheromones.

The Colony is in danger. The Queen is in danger.

We battle The Enemy at the mouth of our tunnels, but They are too many. We are forced backward. By forced backwards, of course, it is meant that we were physically forced backwards down the tunnels by the combined mass of our corpses and The Enemy pushing forward. We did not retreat. Ants do not retreat.

'We' eventually consists of the two ants who are exactly the same. The Colony contains more, we have not yet been defeated, but We are separated from The Colony. For some reason or another, We have always been a pair, together at almost all times. It probably has something to do with our sameness. Ants are comfortable with sameness.

As can be judged by The Colony's current battle with The Enemy, we are not comfortable with differences. We faced down many of The Enemy, but there were too many of them. There were too many of them but we fought anyway, because that was all that we were programmed to do.

And then, suddenly, The Queen was in Danger! Not just danger, but Danger. THE ENEMY WAS TOUCHING THE QUEEN. THE ENEMY WAS ATTACKING THE QUEEN.

We go into a frenzy, shredding The Enemy. Red body parts littler the tunnels, piling up on top of a deeper sea of black parts. THE ENEMY SHALL NOT HARM THE QUEEN.

In the ant brain, it was a complete impossibility. The Enemy is not physically capable of attacking The Queen, yet The Enemy was. In the ant brain, THE UNIVERSE WAS WRONG.

The universe was wrong, and it was up to Us to fix it. We slaughter, slaughter, slaughter, mashing red ant parts and spilling red ant goo inside of the chamber. But The Enemy is everywhere.

And suddenly, The Queen is nowhere. In that moment, The Queen has gone from being alive to being dead.

And in that moment, I am found.


	6. Chapter 6

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

I was screaming.

Me. I. Myself.

I was alive, and I was screaming at the top of my mental lungs. Later, I realized that was probably the only thing that prevented me from being killed. I had paused in the middle of a frenzied battle, and the red ants should have torn me apart. Instead, all of the ants froze for a second, overwhelmed by the massive voice inside of their tiny heads.

I didn't think that anything could overpower an ant's drive to kill, even for a second, but somehow my thought-speak scream had done the job. They started moving again, but by then I was gone. All of the red ants were in the queen's chamber, and I was rocketing up the tunnel, climbing over dead bodies of all colors to just reach the surface.

I have instantly developed claustrophobia. The tunnels are crushing, dark, and tiny. I run into a stray red ant, limping, left behind because she is missing all but two of her legs. She tries to attack me, but I run past. I am disgusted by her, but I refuse to kill her.

Mercy, right? That's a human thing. And I'm human.

I burst from the tunnel and into daylight. I can barely see, but even the ant eyes can tell that it is brighter than inside of the tunnels by an order of magnitudes.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

Oh. I am still screaming. I don't even know exactly how I am doing it. I'm not sure I can stop.

I scurry, scuttle, dash at top speed away from any hint of pheromones, enemy or other. The ant brain stirs at a whiff of The Enemy, but I clamp it down.

No, ant brain. I am in control.

Me. I. Myself.

I run, not knowing where I am running to but knowing exactly what I am running from. I know it all too well. I have no mouth, and I must scream. So I do.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

Suddenly, I felt myself lifted into the air. My environment had changed from dry and sunny to wet and dark.

(Hey, what - No!) I yelled. I tried to stand, but the squishy ground shifted continuously underneath my feet. I manage to scramble around the area, touching the sides of this area I was in with my antennae. After a few seconds, I realized that it was completely enclosed. Almost all sides were soft, squishy, and wet, but there was one side that was filled with a row of bumpy, hard mountains.

The image that my ant sense had created clicked with my human memories, and I realized with a sense of dread where I was.

I was inside of a mouth.


	7. Chapter 7

My name is Bernice.

I can't tell you my last name. Well, I could, but I won't because this isn't my story. I mean, I suffered too, but not in the same way that Nat did. I mean, at least I remembered my fucking last name, you know? This is Nat's story, and I'm just here to fill in the blanks as best as I can, not steal the spotlight. So, really, Bernice will suffice.

A long story short, the yeerks left most of the animals in the pet shop alive. They shot a dog out of anger, but didn't do a systematic slaughter of us all. For which I'm eternally grateful. The police eventually showed up after a while; I guess they're pretty busy during natural disasters and took their sweet time on what they thought was a prank laser call.

All of the animals got moved to a rescue shelter downtown the road due to all of the damage to the pet shop. Have you ever been in a rescue shelter? It was a pretty shitty week for me.

The thing is, I didn't even know what to do. I had no idea where Nat was, and Cassie never told me how to change back into a human. So I just kind of waited around. Keep in mind that I was an adorable kitten, so plenty of people wanted to adopt me. I didn't know where they'd take me if I got adopted and how far it would be away from Nat and Cassie, so I hissed and scratched and generally acted like I had a bad kitty attitude.

Exactly one week after the accident, I was being looked at and abused by this little girl who should never, ever own a pet as long as she lives. She wasn't much older than 4, so I was trying to figure out how to get her to hate me without drawing blood. I settled for peeing on her.

"MOMMY!" She screamed, as I used her as a walking litter box. She threw me to the ground, and an animal handler snatched me up.

"Tabitha!" She scolded. This is what the handlers had named me, even though I was clearly a Patches. "You are the nastiest kitty I have ever met. Can't you play nice?"

_Nope_, I thought maliciously. She lifted me towards my cage and placed me inside. Just as she was about to latch it, a piercing scream tore through our heads.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

The cats began yowling, and the dogs starting barking. It sounded like the pet shop all over. The little girl, her mother, and the trainer all covered their ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what and who that noise was.

_Nat_, I thought. He was screaming, inside of our heads like Cassie and the other animals. A jolt of excitement shot through me. I had never figured out how to talk inside of people's heads, or else I would have had a very calm and rational conversation with one of the handlers about how I was actually a human being and could you please help me find Cassie so I can turn back into one.

If I could find him, he could show me how to talk inside of people heads. He probably hadn't had very much luck as a tiny insect getting people's attention. With my size and mobility, and his communication skills, we'd be able to find Cassie and get changed back before the day was over!

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

That was, if he wasn't getting assaulted with a can of raid or something. He was screaming, after all. _My only chance to avoid a lifetime of cat nip and fish could be dying this very second_. I hurled my little kitty form against the cage door, and it swung open. The handler made a grab for me in midair, but I barrel rolled past his hands and still managed to land on my feet.

_Cat agility for the win_, I thought. I powered towards the exit at top speed, a blur of tan and white. Some wonderful, clueless little intern had paused in the front door when the screaming had started. The path to the outside was wide open. He would probably get cussed out and fired for letting an animal escape, but he was my hero.

Underneath my padded feet, carpet gave way to grass and then to concrete. The screaming in my head had a sort of direction to it, almost; I could tell that it was coming from near the pet shop, even if I couldn't tell how. Nat was screaming bloody murder, a long, continuous wail. That could not be good.

I hauled kitty ass. I glanced to my side, and could have sworn that I was keeping up with a car. The driver had probably slowed down some to see where the hell this insane kitten on the side of the road was running to, but still – I was clocking.

I dashed straight into the wreckage of the pet shop, dashing through a hole-in-the-wall-formerly-known-as-window. I paused, panting, sniffing the air as if I'd be able to smell Nat. My senses were good, but not that good.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-)

It was coming from outside, not inside! I turned around and looked behind me. In the dirt yard behind the pet shop where the animals used to run around, two men were scanning the ground. I could tell that they were tense, and angry.

_They were looking for something to stomp_, I realized. With a sudden blast of anger, I realized that they probably had laser guns in their pockets.

_Oh no you don't, you bastard yeerks_, I thought. I crouched in the shadow of the building and stared.

_Hunt? _My feline brain asked. I nodded mentally. Cats are incredibly patient hunters with amazing senses. They can detect sight and sounds far beyond the range of humans, especially if it involves movement. Movement, for example, like that of a tiny black ant scampering across a dark brown ground.

I saw him before either of the yeerk laser gun men realized that there _were_ ants in this field. Something deep down told me that this was Nat; it had to be.

I darted out across the field, faster than a speeding bullet. Not actually, of course, but it felt like it.

"Hey!"

"What the – Andalite Filth!"

One of them reacted in time to swing a feeble kick at me. I was a yard away by the time that his foot reached the place I had been. _Ha, puny human. I am an INFANT cat and I am still owning you!_

In one swift movement, I lunged downwards and scooped the ant into my mouth.

(Hey, what - No!) Nat screamed.

_It's okay Nat, I've got you_, I couldn't say. I felt him moving around my mouth, tickling me with his antennae and legs. I struggled with my urge to swallow.

(Hey! Whoever you are, sharp left, on my count!) A voice ordered in my head. I recognized it from last week as one of the male voices at the pet shop.

(3 – 2 - ) He yelled. Should I trust him?

_There was no real reason not to turn left, but there might be a good reason to. _

(1 – Now!) He ordered. I swerved on my paws and scampered left, dodging a red beam of light that stabbed into the ground on my right.

So they did have laser guns. Fan-fucking-tastic.

(You obviously understand me, but you're not responding.) He said. (You don't know how to thought-speak? You must be one of the pet shop morphers.)

(Who's that?) Nat yelled. (Help me!)

(Okay, so you _can_ respond. Hard right!)

I had no way of letting the mysterious and seemingly omniscient voice know that Nat was speaking and not me, so I just skidded to my right on my kitty legs and dodge the second laser blast.

(I'm being swallowed! Help me!) Nat yelled. (Please!)

There was a pause. (Oh geez – I think I get what's going on. Kitty, you have an open field. Go left if you have something in your mouth, right if you don't.)

I turned left.

(Okay, thought-speaking dude, chill out. You're inside of a friendly mouth, I think.) The voice said. (And stop talking. You're broadcasting to everyone within three miles. Kitty, you've got serious yeerk heat coming towards you. You need to do _exactly_ was I tell you if you want to live.)

I nodded.

(Keep going forward. You're headed straight for a car, but if you move quickly enough you'll be able to get underneath it and on the other side before the yeerks get out.)

I charged forward. I really, really thought that I had it. I was high on kitty adrenaline, the space between the car and the street was locked into my vision, and I could see the doors opening in slow motion. I was going to make it, no sweat – it was fucking perfection.

But, see, I wasn't a full grown cat. I was a kitten, barely a few weeks old. And we kittens can be clumsy.

It was a stone, from the feel of it. It hit my back right leg and threw me off balance, and I spiraled forwards and skidded across the dirt on my belly. I stopped right in front of the car doors, splayed out as the men climbed out of the car.

(Crap crap crap!) The voice yelled.

A man stared down from the car. "How convenient. I thank you for offering yourself up to us so easily, Andalite Bandit. Kill it."

Another man leveled his laser gun, oblivious to the dark shadow that had appeared above him. It was growing smaller – closer.

"TSWEER!"

The man flinched as a giant bird swooped out of the sky, but it wasn't aiming for him. Giant, razor sharp talons dug into my back, and I almost mewed in pain before remembering that I had Nat in my mouth.

(This is insane! Ah! Ah! Ah!) The bird yelled, flapping his wings desperately to regain altitude.

"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" The first man screamed in rage. "Shoot it, you imbecile!"

The ground rushed away from us. A red light stabbed past us, and I smelled singed feathers.

(Ah! Ah!) The bird yelled again. We whipped past two more red beams, and then narrowly shot over the top of a building. The gravel roof whizzed inches away from my nose.

The bird dropped me onto the roof, and then crash landed unceremonious into a pile of rags next to an air conditioning unit.

_Hell yeah! _I cheered in my head. _That's what I call fucking air support!_

I climbed shakily to my feet and trotted over to the bird. He was even larger than I was, and sported a rusty red tail. His left wing had a large burn spot in the middle, and he wasn't moving.

I batted him gently with my paw.

(Professor Plum?) He groaned.


	8. Chapter 8

I wandered listlessly around the inside of the glass jar, running my antennae along the edges of the wall. This glass container had been my home for the past three months and I knew every square inch of it, but rubbing my antennae against the glass gave me at least some sort of stimulation. Provided me with something to do.

(…he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.) Bernice finished. A shadow was cast inside of the jar, and I could just make out the outline of a feline face hovering outside of the glass. (Were you even fucking listening?)

(Dumbledore is dead, Snape's evil, blah blah horcruxes blah blah.) I responded.

(I'm not going to waste my time reading to you if you can't be bothered to pay attention.) Bernice snapped, and swatted the side of the jar with her paw. I stopped scurrying and settled into one spot as vibrations reverberated through the ground. I thought for a moment that my jar would fall off of the shelf and onto Cassie's bed below it, but then the wobbling stopped and my world stood still once more.

(No, really, I'm sorry.) I said sincerely. Reading and conversing with Bernice were some of the only bright points in my dismal existence. (Can we read that next one now – what's it called?)

(Deathly Hallows.) Bernice sighed. (Maybe we can read some of it tomorrow – I'm a growing kitten and I need some shut eye.)

(What? Is it really that late?)

(Dude. It's four in the morning.) Bernice said. (Cassie's going to be pissed at me for staying up so late again. She says I'm going to stunt my growth or something.)

(Yeah, well…fuck Cassie.) I said vehemently.

(Stop saying that, or I'm going to cover you with chocolate and eat you.) Bernice said. (She's giving us a home, and she did everything she could to save our lives that day-)

(Some life.) I replied bitterly.

(You know, I hate when you get like this.) Bernice growled. (This sucks. Of course it sucks. It sucks giant hairy monkey balls. I don't want to spend my days eating cat nip and shitting in a litter box and having an ant as my best and only friend -)

At that point, any normal, decent human being would have just let the conversation end. Unfortunately, I'm not normal or decent or even human.

(Well, don't worry. Soon you'll only have to be bothered with the first two.) I snapped. (Ants don't live for more than half a year. How long has it been? Three months? And that's not counting the age of the ant before I morphed it – we had that farm in the shop for at least a few weeks. I'll be dead before you know it.)

Bernice bounded off without another word. I felt the beginnings of guilt, but I didn't bother calling after her. I knew she'd be back tomorrow morning to talk again, because she always came back. I was all she had, and she was all I had. There wasn't anything like love in our relationship, but I felt more connected to her than anything else in my tiny world. I was actually glad that I would die first, because I couldn't imagine life without her.

Sure, the Animorphs were all nice to us, especially Cassie – how could they not be? – but they had their own lives and a war to fight. Tobias was the best of them, because he was a fellow _Nothlit_. It was he who had suggested that Bernice read to me, in order to help us both stay connected with our human side. He knew all too well what it was like to be lost.

Neither Bernice nor Tobias completely understood what I was going through. It wasn't the fact that they had eyes and ears and were more than a millimeter long. Even a yeerk wouldn't understand what I felt like. My week long stint as a mindless drone had robbed me of everything, and the death of the Queen had only barely returned my humanity. I regained my free will, but my sense of self had been suppressed in that souless ant body for so long that my memory – my identity and my individuality – had not returned. I remembered simple stuff like talking and objects and food (which made my existence that much worse, actually), but all of my personal memories were gone. I had to start from scratch, trying to scrape together some sort of meaningful existence from my new brief life inside of my glass jar and whatever scraps of information Bernice could provide to me about my old life.

I don't know who I was, and I'm not sure who I'll be when I die. Maybe my life will amount to the body of an ant, curled up at the bottom of a glass jar, who will only be mourned by a cat.

My name is Nat. I can't tell you my last name.

I don't know what it is.


End file.
